A prominent UC Irvine biologist who generates millions in research funding might be placed on an unpaid leave for refusing to take sexual harassment prevention training he calls a “sham” that offends his sensibilities and casts suspicion on his reputation.

UCI has already relieved Alexander McPherson of his duties supervising scientists in his lab, where he studies proteins, the “building blocks of life.” The campus also ordered that his teaching responsibilities be reassigned, but the order was rescinded.

Campus officials say McPherson, 64, could be placed on leave if he doesn't attend a training course Nov. 12 to comply with Assembly Bill 1825. The state law, passed in 2004, requires businesses that regularly employ 50 or more people to have supervisors undergo sexual harassment prevention training.

McPherson, who has generated about $20 million in research funding since joining UCI in 1997, says he won't attend the course, even if it leads to his suspension from a job that pays $148,740 a year.

“I have consistently refused to take such training on the grounds that the adoption of the requirement was a naked political act by the state that offended my sensibilities, violated my rights as a tenured professor, impugned my character and cast a shadow of suspicion on my reputation and career,” McPherson said.

"I consider my refusal an act of civil disobedience. I even offered to go to jail if the university persisted in persecuting me for my refusal. We Scots are very stubborn in matters of this sort.”

McPherson says he has never been accused of any form of sexual harassment and offered, in writing, to allow the university to make his personnel records public to prove his claim.

Tim Osborne, chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and Albert Bennett, dean of the School of Biological Sciences, declined to comment on the matter, referring inquiries to other executives.

Susan Menning, a campus spokeswoman, said UCI does not comment on personnel matters.

She added that “those who do not comply (with the requirement for training) by Oct. 6 will be relieved of all supervisory responsibilities, including supervision of staff and graduate students."

McPherson, who has had experiments fly on the space shuttle, Mir space station and the International Space Station, said he wasn't fully relieved of those responsibilities until Oct. 31.

The showdown between McPherson and the university has largely taken place through e-mails that have created a rift that comes at a sensitive time. UCI is seeking millions of dollars from the National Institutes of Health for a graduate trainee program that McPherson would help run. If McPherson is placed on unpaid leave, it could damage UCI's bid for the money.

The dispute began to escalate Oct. 6 when Osborne told McPherson by e-mail that he was being relieved of supervisory and teaching duties. McPherson was preparing to travel to the East Coast for personal and professional reasons, and he hotly objected to UCI's action.

“The state has no right whatsoever, in my view, to inflict its narrow political, social, or cultural proclivities on me, an individual,” he told Osborne by e-mail.

“This sexual harassment edict is a blunt political act, and I will not be subject to their will. … My greatest amazement is that so few of my colleagues at UCI and at other campuses have not spoken out against this offense. What is next? Kneel and kiss the ring of the State Assembly leader? Political re-education camp?”

Osborne responded, in part, by saying in an e-mail, “I know this (training) comes from politically motivated roots but it has been passed down to us like you know what flows downstream. The training is not meant as an attack or insult to anyone's personal integrity.”

McPherson offered his version of a compromise, asking UCI to sign a disclaimer that says the training is “strictly a pro forma condition for his continued employment” and that he'd never sexually harassed anyone under his supervision in the UC system.

UCI turned down his offer. Bennett, the dean, told McPherson he faced “leave without pay” if he does not comply with AB 1825.

Menning said 119 of 3,522 faculty and staff supervisors have yet to take the training. Two more training sessions will be offered before Nov. 12.

“Our overall compliance rate to date is 97 percent,” she said.

A deal like the one McPherson is seeking is rare, but not without precedent. Earlier this year, Cal State Fullerton rehired a lecturer who had refused to sign a loyalty oath required as a condition of employment. The woman, a Quaker, had objected to the militaristic tone of the oath, in which employees pledge to defend the state and national constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

The CSU allowed her to attach a statement to the oath saying would abide by the constitution, but that she did not promise to bear arms or engage in other forms of violence.

A compromise doesn't appear likely in the McPherson dispute. He said he would “probably be forced into retirement” if he's placed on unpaid leave.

When asked what his wife has to say about the dispute, McPherson said, “She said, ‘Alex, just do the training.' ”

Contact the writer: Register reporter Marla Fisher contributed to this report. Science editor Gary Robbins can be reached at 714-796-7970 or grobbins@ocregister.com. Read his daily blog at ocregister.com/sciencedude

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